Boro Can Beat The Best

What does it take to get Middlesbrough to really turn it on down by The Riverside? Double Air Miles? A tactical masterplan? Bigger bonuses? Hypnotherapy?

Actually, it’s none of the above. All you have to do is wheel out one of the top teams in the Premiership and let them get on with it. First it was Arsenal, who went down 2-1 (though they got their revenge later with a 7-0 annihilation of Boro at Highbury). Then Steve McClaren’s men inflicted a humiliating defeat on his former boss as Sir Alex Ferguson’s mighty Manchester United were thumped 4-1. And on 11th February 2006 they hit the jackpot, with a decisive 3-0 demolition of Premiership Champions Chelsea, who everyone thought wouldn’t be caught and couldn’t be beaten.

The Boro certainly didn’t hang about, because Rochemback’s opener, his first goal for the club, was timed at just two minutes. Then, far from grimly hanging on, McClaren’s side went further ahead on the stroke of half-time, courtesy of Steven Downing. And with Yakubu’s strike in the 68th minute, the result was finally put beyond doubt.

As for Chelsea, they are clearly not invincible and on this occasion they were not impressive either. And Jose Mourinho marked the heaviest defeat of his Chelsea career by refusing to face the Sky TV cameras – an indication perhaps that when the going gets tough, the Special One just keeps on running.

You could almost hear the triumphant locals singing: “Talk when you’re winning, you only talk when you’re winning…”